


'Cause people believe That they're gonna get away for the summer But you and I, we live and die

by cutebutpsyco



Series: Ironstrange Bingo 2019 Fills [5]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Incredible Hulk (2008)
Genre: Age of Ultron who?, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Civil War doesn't exist, Foursome - F/M/M/M, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, Multi, Not Beta Read, a post on tumblr forced me to mention BlackBolt, this went out of control
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-12-26 23:29:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18292364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: IRONSTRANGE BINGO. FILL: SOULMATES || SCIENCE BROS BINGO. FILLS: NATASHA ROMANOFF AND STEPHEN STRANGE ||So yes, he didn’t believe in soulmates and while he knew his parents were, as well as the Jarvises, he was sure that he wasn’t that kind of person to be gifted with one. And he was perfectly fine with that: the idea of being destined to someone was scary and made him feel anxious more times than not. Nobody seemed to be so surprised by his own believing, and it wasn’t like Tony cared about others’ opinions.





	'Cause people believe That they're gonna get away for the summer But you and I, we live and die

**Author's Note:**

> When I saw the "soul mateS", as in plural, square in my Ironstrange Bingo card, and I had Nat and Stephen in my Science Bros one, I decided it was a good idea to rewrite the MCU from Iron Man 2 with the four of them being soulmates. It wasn't, it still isn't, and I don't even know if I like this, but I hit the magic 10k+ in a oneshoot so, yeah, whatever. 
> 
> Age of Ultron who knows her? Basically, I don't really like that movie, but I had to push some of its plot in this even if it's mostly hinted and in a sort of flashback. As far as Civil War, though, it was a little bit more complicated and that's why I decided to let Tony find out about the video somewhere after CA:TWS and I had Tony letting Steve go to look for Bucky. It's really all subplot, but I needed somehow to explain why they are all still friends and why Nat is with Tony and co during Infinity War. Again, I didn't want to rewrite the entire thing and I feel like I'd made better if I divided this into chapters, but what it's done is done.  
> Also, I wanted Nat in her IronWidow suit from Avengers Academy so I decided that Tony created for her a suit as well. 
> 
> That said, nothing belongs to me, nobody beta-read this and English still isn't my first language. Title from Champagne Supernova by Oasis.

Tony Stark wasn’t the kind of man who believed in soulmates, he never did and while he knew those were a thing he never found himself wondering how his would look like. He simply didn’t care. He had more important things for the head.  
The Stark Industries weren’t going to run by themselves, and his persona couldn’t keep up with all the expectation the public had if he didn’t put his mind in it. Or, better, it was funnier to be the playboy from the gossip magazines than to put interests into something that looked extremely trivial to him. 

So yes, he didn’t believe in soulmates and while he knew his parents were, as well as the Jarvises, he was sure that he wasn’t that kind of person to be gifted with one. And he was perfectly fine with that: the idea of being destined to someone was scary and made him feel anxious more times than not. Nobody seemed to be so surprised by his own believing, and it wasn’t like Tony cared about others’ opinions. 

Which was why he had been surprised the moment Natalie Rushman walked into his gym room. It wasn’t simply the fact that she was an attractive woman, there was more, something that Tony had no idea how to call. He felt magnetized by the soft movements of the redhead woman. She walked by the ring on which Tony was and trailed close to Pepper without tearing her eyes away from Tony and all Stark could do was follow her, arriving to turn completely hi head once that she stopped near Pepper. Happy punched him lightly, but Tony barely felt it. 

A moment later, his bodyguard was lying on the other side of the ring, thank you so much MMA classes. “What’s your name, lady?” He asked, to the newcomer.

“Rushman,” The woman replied, raising her head from the files she was looking at. “Natalie Rushman.” 

And maybe Tony had the worst idea ever, but there was something in that woman and he could simply let her go back to one of the SI offices. That was what he repeated to himself, asking Natalie to jump on the ring. What he wasn’t expecting for was her to take off her heels and follow with his request, without taking her mesmerizing eyes away from him. 

They stare at each other, Tony’s chlorophyll drink the only thing between them, and, despite everything, something more magnetic, more electric rose in the deeps of Tony’s body. Natalie was hot, he wasn’t going to deny that, but there was something more. He was used to hot women, but none of them ever had that effect on him, the feeling of having known her forever. 

“What?” He asked, after what looked an eternity of just staring, and Natalie’s lips bowed imperceptibly up. 

“Nice tattoo,” She whispered and that, that froze Tony on the spot while he tried so hard not to show it. Rushman’s eyes were on his wrist, the sweater he was wearing exposing his the skin which had always been blank to everyone else. A miniaturized Arc Reactor, his soulmate mark. And she was the only person in his entire life to notice it. That was enough for Tony to jump down the ring and letting Happy take care of the woman. 

“She’s from legal,” Pepper said, as a reprimand, the moment he seated by her side. “And a potential sexual har…”

“She saw the mark,” Tony whispered, not even knowing to whom, googling the woman’s name a moment later on one of his screens. He could feel Pepper’s inquisitorial glance on him, but before she could ask him anything, he exposed his wrist totally, turning it so that she was facing his soulmate mark. “Do you see anything?”

“Tony…?”

“Answer me, Pepper.” 

“No, it’s just your skin, there’s nothing,” She sounded concerned, but now was looking again at his arm, as if something could appear on it. 

”My soulmate mark, that’s where it is and she saw it,” He stopped, the moment he heard the sound of someone falling against the training mattress and saw Happy lying again on it, Natalie above the man’s body. 

“Happy!” Pepper squealed, while Tony jumped back on the training ring, leaning closer to the woman. 

“Good job,” He said, forcing his hand not to touch her, while there was anything he wanted more. It was like morbid curiosity. Something in which he had never believed was standing in front of him. 

“Uhm… Just, I need your impression,” She said, a moment later, and Tony’s eyes wondered for an instant on her neck and there it was, a little, almost invisible spider tattoo that he couldn’t see in the picture of her modelling in Tokyo. In a snap, his eyes were back on Natalie’s face.

“You’re quite reserved,” He said, not even knowing why. “I’d say you have an old soul. And do you like spiders?”

“I…” She stopped, her eyes looking down as if she was looking for seeing Tony’s tattoo again. “I meant your fingerprint.” 

They stare again, while Tony’s hand trailed all over the documents and Pepper reached them. “There’ll be all, Mr Stark?” She asked, a moment later.

“No,” Tony provided, the moment Pepper said “Yes”, and considering that she was CEO, Natalie just nodded and walked away. Tony wasn’t going to let it slip.

He turned to look at the other woman who was still in the training room. “Why?” He asked, just to receive an eye roll from her. 

—

Monaco was crowded, as always, and when Tony and Pepper entered the Hotel dining room the man’s eyes ran to find Natalie. She didn’t fly in his same jet and her own presence seemed to light the entire room, everyone’s eyes looking at her. Tony was still surprised that he could see those things when he never noticed that.  
The not-so-funny thing was that he found her now that he was dying. 

“Can I borrow you for a moment, Mr Stark?” She asked, walking him away from yet another photographer. If someone snapped a photo of them, it wasn’t important for Tony to know.

There were billions of things Tony wanted to ask her, and, at the same time, he knew it was pointless, so he said nothing and let Natalie drag him through the crowd until Justin Hammer appeared and started to blabbing about this and that. The moment he managed to get rid of the man, Natalie was a ghost again. 

He would have sworn to have seen her speaking with a man in a leather coat when he was walking through the hallways of a French jail, but the couple was gone in a blink of his eyes and in his mind the image of the psycho with a working and functioning Arc Reactor was still too vivid for him to focus on anything else. 

—

Rhodey was angry with him. Apparently, he and Pepper were teaming up, and the only thing Tony could do was looking at the macabre map of black poison which was running through his chest. 93% was the result of his last test, and it had been three days before; he stopped because he knew he was going to die soon, but there was nothing he could do about it and he felt useless. Testing over and over again the level of his blood toxicity gave him a solid grip on reality, on how fast he needed to work, but where was the point, now? 

Heels against the floor brought him to close his shirt just when Natalie walked in. She was gorgeous in her thigh dress, and when she handed him his Martini he couldn’t help but let his eyes met her glance made of jade. 

“We are alone,” He stated. She nodded. “Can I ask you a question, hypothetically?”

For a moment, he was sure she understood he wasn’t just hypothetically speaking. She said nothing, and Tony decided it was her way to tell him to continue. “Bit odd - If this was your last birthday party you were ever gonna have, how would you celebrate it?”

Sadness streamed through Natalie’s eyes, and Stark wished to be able to read her more easily. He had always been good in understand people, but she was proving to be a hard challenge, even for him. “I’d do whatever I wanted to do, with whoever I wanted to do it with.” 

Tony didn’t move, letting her fix the concealer over the bruises on his face but tried to be as open as possible with his body language. Only when she finished her work and pushed back from him, his hand ran on her wrist. “I can see it,” He said.

“What…?” 

“Why you can see that stupid tattoo,” He didn’t dare to move, again frozen in place by Rushman’s eyes. “Where did you say you came from?”

“Europe,” It was a barley audible word, almost a breathed one. “And I don’t believe in…”

“This tale for children, I know, me neither.”

Nat smiled at that. “Stop it; this ending each other’s sentence.” 

“Why?” Tony leaned closer and Natalie’s hand moved to keep him back, brushing his mark with soft fingers. It was an intimate gesture, touch someone’s soul mark when they could see it, and both Tony and Natalie froze for a moment, for different reasons. The man looked at her for another instant, knowing she was having the shorter version of his story flashing in front of her eyes. Then, he bucked off, smiling at her. “Oh, you are electric.”

She looked at him, and Tony could feel her eyes trailing down the collar of his shirt. Without saying anything, she took Stark’s hand and dragged it against her own mark.  
Tony closed his eyes the moment he started to see images from Natalie’s past. He knew he couldn’t keep them out from his brain just doing that, the bond between their souls was cementing itself through their reciprocal touch and there wasn’t a way in which he could not look.

Though, there wasn’t anything of what he read online about her, in the images he was seeing. Tony watched at young girls shooting to targets and dancing and blurred faces passing in front of his eyes while he — or better, a younger Natalie — was pushed through a dark hallway. A mask was placed over their face, and everything went black and then other images streamed inside his brain, burning it until all he could see was snow and guns and then his father, around the age he died and another man. He couldn’t hear what they were saying, and it was too fast. A moment later a tired smile occupied his field and a strong arm felt around his shoulders and he was back in his room, opening his eyes and looking at the woman in front of him. 

“What…?” He asked, and that sadness from before was back in Natalie’s eyes. Eyes that did nothing to trail away from him. He could see that she wanted to say something, but then she decided to walk back upstairs and Tony could do nothing but follow.

—

“Sir, I’m gonna ask you to get out of the doughnut,” Tony looked back down at the man in the dark coat who he totally saw Natalie speak with, back in Monaco. And curiosity filled him when he realized he was Nick Fury. He still didn’t know what to think about the woman, and he couldn’t bring himself to stop to think about her. Not that it wasn’t going to be a problem, in a couple of days or so.  
Jarvis was flashing him the level of blood toxicity in his blood which was enough to convince Tony to take the helmet off, not just to eat, but so that he could ignore his upcoming death. 

He went down anyway, even if he didn’t want to, because he was curious about what Nick Fury may want from him and because he saw him in Natalie’s memory. Just to find himself faced with his apparent soulmate in a thigh leather suit injecting him with - something. And the man speaking about how he didn’t try any known element. Tony wanted to do or say something. He wanted to be able to ask for more information, but the entire situation was simply crazy and he couldn’t really bring himself to do it. 

He looked at her, and while her eyes weren’t so soft anymore, he just couldn’t help. It was hard, but he saw her past and it made even more sense for her to work for SHIELD. 

“This won’t cure you,” She whispered. “But it’ll give you enough time to find a solution.”

—

“I’m sorry,” Nat...asha said, looking at him. Fury confined him into his own house, and the woman was the first and the last person Tony wanted to be with. He raised an eyebrow, looking at her suspiciously. 

“About what, exactly?” He asked. “Because you lied to me? Or because you arrested me? Keeping me away from the outside world too?” 

“I didn’t know, about the mark, about anything,” She turned and that captured Fury’s attention. “I’ll be at Stark Industries,” She said to the man, and Tony didn’t even try to pretend he didn’t care, and the moment he was left alone, he went back asking a coffee to Coulson. They could keep Tony Stark locked in his own house, but they couldn’t keep coffee away from Tony Stark. 

It was funny. Maybe that was the reason why he never believed in soulmates. He found her, and she was a spy, a liar, someone he couldn’t trust. And he was fascinated by her. Because Natalia, Natasha, whatever name she decided to go for, was something more than his usual hooks up. 

—

The next time Tony saw Natasha, he was tired, exhausted and, despite being done with all her lies, he was glad to see the red-headed woman’s face on his HUB. 

“I like her,” Rhodey said, over the comm inside his own suit, and it was clear that he was smirking, it didn’t even matter the fact that Tony could see his best-friend smiling. 

“I haven’t decided it yet, though,” Tony answered, nodding a moment later when Natasha said that she could detect that he wasn’t dying any longer. The fact that SHIELD went so far didn’t amuse him at all, but, by now, it wasn’t his major concern. 

“People love me, Stark, always,” She whispered, before the beeping of drones getting closer to the man brought her back to reality. “Tony, you have incomings. See you later.”

Later meant on the top of Hammer’s facility roof. “Tony!” Natasha yelled the moment he landed there, taking off the now malfunctioning helmet. And, for the first time since his birthday party, he was back along with his soulmate. 

Tony had no idea what to think. Soulmates, in the tales he heard when he was s child, were people who loved their significant other to the point of dying for them, and while he knew it wasn’t true (he saw his parents; he had known them, despite what he told to Fury), he wasn’t sure he could forgive Agent Romanoff. But, on the other hand, he knew that he could simply ignore the bond they share. It never worked for Tony, ignoring things wasn’t how he behaved, it didn’t matter what he was facing. 

“Natasha,” He said. He didn’t even know who initiated it, but a moment later, they were kissing. The woman’s body was pressed against the cold metal of the Iron Man’s armour, her fingers brushing Stark’s hair, dragging him closer. Tony had kissed a lot of women in his life, more than he could remember, but he was sure that none of those kisses had ever been so full of words. 

—

“Hey,” Tony had dragged Natasha closer to him a moment before they both hopped on the helicarrier. “How was Russia?” 

She flashed him with a small smile. On the ship deck, there were two other people. Tony didn’t recognize either of them, but Fury reached them before his girlfriend could answer to his question. Living with a spy was difficult, especially when said spy tended to leave every day and the other. 

“Indian,” She answered, smiling at him one of her mysterious smiles, the ones Tony loved so much. Now, though, he was just surprised. She told him she was leaving for Russia, and while she couldn’t disclose so much information about her missions, that was a super weird answer. “Interesting,” She added a moment later. “I want to introduce you to Doctor Banner.” 

And, maybe, Tony’s lips curled up at the sole idea of meeting with the man. He had read everything he could get of and about him, both as a Doctor and as the other guy. The man was impressive on a new level, and he had no idea how Natasha could know that Tony would come back to be a teenager at the mention of him, but she knew. “Should I be jealous?” She asked, a moment later, rolling her eyes. 

“While I would have totally dumped every other girlfriend for him, we are bonded,” He said, mockingly, brushing his soulmate mark. And there was something, in Nat’s eyes, that let him guess that, for once, he said the right thing. 

“How’s Stark Tower?” 

“Magnificent!” Tony smiled, while they were approaching the man who was looking at the sea from the edge of the ship. “Rhodey and I were celebrating, then Mr Agent walked in. If SHIELD meant to kidnap me, they could as well send you to do the dirty work. Doctor Banner, it's a real pleasure.”

The man turned, dark eyes, clearly worried about the place where he was, or maybe he was worried about what he could do to the people who were on the helicarrier, Tony couldn’t tell. “Mr Stark…” His eyes trailed a moment later on Natasha, then he extended his hand to take Tony’s. 

“Gentlemen,” She said before they could continue their conversation. “You might want to step inside in a couple of minutes. It’s gonna be a little hard to breathe.”

And when Banner looked at him again, Tony found himself unable to take his eyes away from the doctor’s face for a couple of minutes, missing whatever he and Nat were saying. He was trying to understand what was going to happen, but he couldn’t be sure about that and he didn’t understand the clear distress in Banner’s eyes. 

He understood why on that same helicarrier, once they had left the port of New York, once they had Loki in custody. Tony walked into the room later than everyone else, the main excuse being that you need at least a hot shower after a Norse god beat the shit out of you, and everyone else was looking to said god’s brother ranting on the screens. 

The real reason was that he liked to do a show of his entrance, even if in this case he just walked inside the room wearing an elegant suit and pretending he didn’t care about what was going on, all focused on the conversation he was having with Agent Coulson.  
And he knew because he could feel it, that Nat was rolling her eyes at the ceiling the exact moment he smirked at her before starting to make some sense out off all the stuff the others seemed to ignore. 

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” Rogers asked, and he sounded almost annoyed. Not what Tony expected from the man his father had been obsessed with for his entire life. He had no clue why, but every time he thought about the great Captain America his brain provided him with the idea of some sort of genius, before that the mass of raw muscles the man was instead. It was the only reason Tony could think about Howard’s behaviour toward him. 

At the limit of his sight field, he saw Nat stiffen on her chair, and a wave of concern flew through his left arm. At that moment, he hated the bound he had with his soulmate, but, at the same time, he tried to answer to it with as many calm and comfort he could provide. No need to tell her what was crossing his mind. 

That moment of silence from Tony had Banner to fill in: “He has to hit the cube with 1020 million Kelvin just to break through the Coulomb barrier.”

“Unless Selvig has figured out how to stabilize the quantum tunnel effect,” Tony continued, walking back up to the round table around which everyone was gathered. 

“Well,” Banner answered him, and Tony was well aware that they had probably lost everyone in the room at Coulomb barrier. “If he did that, he could achieve the heavy ions fusion in any reactor on the planet.”

“Finally, someone who speaks English,” Tony could barely keep his tone from being smug. He was pretty sure that gained another eye roll from Nat, but, again, her fault. She was the one who insisted for them to meet and even if that was their first real conversation, Tony could say he liked the other man. He ignored the question from Captain and reached Bruce at the other side of the table. “I haven’t had the opportunity to tell you how your work on anti-electron collisions is unparalleled, and I am a huge fan of the way you lose control and turn into an enormous green rage monster.” 

The doctor looked, again, uneasy before he muttered a soft thanks and having Fury continuing his little show. Of course, it had to end with the smart people in the room leaving the said room, but, again, Stark was more than happy to share a lab with one of the best minds of his generation, but him. 

—

Working with Banner was funny, Tony had to tell the truth. Once they were alone and speaking about science, the man’s shyness seemed to have left him and Stark discovered that he could be as snarky as he was. Which was led Tony to suggest they could extend their collaboration once they were back in New York.  
And maybe poking the man a little bit. Not because he didn’t trust the feed videos, but because he had always been the kind of man who needed proofs before believing in something. 

So, yeah, maybe not the wiser thing to do, but that gesture did cause the man’s shirt to get out from his pants and show a tattoo on his skin. Tony looked at the close punch, dark against the man’s pale complexion and titled his head by his side. “I mean, I’m the one who told the world to be Iron Man, but being subtle with that one, in the summer, should be hell.”

The thing was huge, and Tony could see just the first two fingers, though, if he had to take a guess, it would probably run on the entirety of the Doctor’s side. Whom was way too occupied in staring Stark for his gesture to pay attention to the words Tony used. “Oh, it’s not like people see it anyway. No needs to hide it as you do with the one on your wrist.”

And, by now, Tony Stark was way too done with the entire soulmates deal. This must be karma. He spent all his life telling to everyone and their mothers that he didn’t believe in soulmates and now that he decided he was fine with being bonded with Nat, someone else could see his soulmate mark? Fuck his life! 

There were a million of things he wanted to ask Banner, but at that moment Rogers had to enter in the lab (note to self: made it dumbs prove), so Tony stored them away for another moment. 

—

Between the things about soulmates, Tony never pondered, finding out that the pain was shared through the mark wasn’t the one he wanted to know while trying to keep them all flying instead of getting crushed against the ground. But, again, when did Tony Stark get what he wanted? 

“Nat,” He called, over the mess in the comm. He could hear at least other three problems rushing in his earpiece one following the other all while Fury was still asking him for updates on the engine. The Hulk was on the loose and there were hostiles wearing SHIELD gears in the helicarrier. “Nat, do you copy?”

“Stark, enemies!” Rogers answered, instead of the spy. He turned toward him, trying to understand how he could help Cap and ignore the stinging pain in his left wrist. He couldn’t think about what was going on inside the ship, not at that moment. Luckily, multitasking had always been one of his dotes and he had always been extremely good in pretending he wasn’t in pain.  
And then Barton’s name streamed through his comm, and a moment later Nat’s voice answered. And he knew, just from hearing her, that she wasn’t fine. She never told him what happened with Clint, but he saw something when she let him touch her mark. He heard that very same tone just once when she came back from a mission of which she couldn’t tell him about. She had walked into their room with glossy eyes and curled under a tower of blankets. She had been shaking and searching for his hand in her sleep for all night long and Stark had had no idea of what to do. It broke his heart, and not being there to help her was even worse. 

“Nat,” He called again, and it was clear that his girlfriend was ignoring him, considering that she just picked up. 

“I’m fine,” She whispered, after too long, but Tony could still hear her voice shaking and unsure.  
Neither of them had time to think about that, though, and Stark decided he would speak with Natasha as soon as everything was settled down. 

—

Tony was sure he had to work on timing when it came to speaking with his girlfriend. As in, not doing it while he, the population of Manhattan or Natasha were dying. 

“I can close it,” Her voice came through the comm, just a moment after Fury’s not-so-kind update direct specifically to him. “Does anybody copy? I can shut it down.”

“Do it,” Steve answered. And everything Tony could see, toward Jarvis’s projection on the HUB and the view in front of you, was the nuke aimed to the town, still filled with people, still threatening to kill too many people. 

“No, wait,” He said.

“Stark, these things are still coming.”

“I’ve a nuke comin’ in. It’s going to blow in less than a minute,” By now, he was following the missile over the Hudson, aimed to the centre of Manhattan. All he could do was to hope to be fast enough to reach it and push it through the portal. “And I’ve an idea where to put it.”

And the moment he took it, he knew, even before Steve’s voice told him. He didn’t have the time to go back from the portal. He couldn’t let it open long enough for him to get out, it was too dangerous. But it couldn’t let the City he loved to be blow up or taken by aliens or whatever. He breathed, and he wondered if Nat saw the life that was flashing in front of his eyes when she touched his soulmate mark. 

“Jarvis,” He said. “Cut everyone off, get me Nat.”

“Yes, sir,” His AI answered, and a moment later Natasha’s face was flashing with the blue from Selvig's device all over her pale skin. 

“Hey, hot mess,” He said, trying to sound casual. 

“Tony,” She said, and the buzzing from the portal made almost difficult for Tony to understand what she was saying. “Clint can shoot at it; you don’t have to do it.”

“Clint won’t stop casualties,” Tony knew she was well aware of that. “Trust me. I don’t want to hang up, can you... ?”

“Remind you that is not your birthday so I won’t let you do whatever you want to?” Tony couldn’t keep a sad smile to raise on his lips while the portal was approaching even faster to him. “I’ll keep it open as long as I can, just find a way to make it through, okay?”

“I’ll try,” He answered, but he had no idea if Natasha heard him because, at that point, he passed the portal and, a moment later, the power from the suit started to go off. Not fast enough, though, to stop him from seeing what was waiting at the other side of it. All there was in front of him were other Chitauri soldiers, waiting just for an order from Loki to walk through the portal. 

He let the nuke slipper off from his shoulders and then just closed his eyes for a moment. He knew the portal must close at his back, now, he hoped for Natasha to do it immediately, though everything that happened was for him to start to fall back, the burning from the Chitauri spaceship haunting his mind as the last image from space he once had looked at with hope and expectation.  
He didn’t even know if he would make it, everything in front of him was orange and red, breathing was becoming harder and harder and, in the beat of an eye, everything went black in front of him. 

—

Nat was curled on the only still standing sofa in the Stark Tower main room, looking over Tony’s newest project to turn it into the Avengers Tower when he and Bruce walked in. 

“Hey guys,” She said, smiling and waving her hand both to dismiss the projects that Tony wanted to keep secret and to greet them. “Bruce, Tony told me he invited you over for a sleepover between you nerds. Something to drink?”

Tony watched her walking toward the bar aisle and stopped for a moment just looking at the one Black Widow in a worn and oversized MIT t-shirt and dark tights. Tony was past the moment he questioned himself about how he could find his girlfriend’s attire sexy, but he was. 

“Yes,” He answered, instead, just when Bruce shook his head. “Ok, so, before we go back doing what we were, show her.”

Both Bruce and Natasha gave him a weird glance and then Tony moved to lift Banner’s shirt. “Tony, I don’t think it works like that,” the man said. 

“You said the other guy seemed fond on her,” Tony’s eyes ran back on Nat which was doing a show of taking out a couple of whiskey glasses without looking at them. 

“He didn’t kill me when he could have. I wouldn’t…” She started, just to be interrupted a moment later by Bruce himself.

“She’s right, I don’t consider that being fond of someone.” 

Which, well, it was totally understandable, but the moment he finally had time to speak alone with Bruce and understood that yes, the tattoo Tony saw on the helicarrier was indeed his soulmate mark he found himself wrapped up in a tunnel from which he couldn’t see the light and that was something that Stark had always hated. He didn’t believe in soulmates and in the span of fewer than three years he found two people able to see his mark? It was the first time that something like that had happened, from what his researches told him — and they tended to be very precise — thought Tony was sure that they both were his soulmates. 

It was something that he knew, without a second thought. Maybe he had known that since the first moment he met Banner too. He and Nat were different like the moon and the sun and, at the same time, Tony knew they were similar and similar to him too. 

“Well, trying it won’t kill you both,” He simply said, even if he stepped back from Bruce, letting the hem of his shirt go. “Do you see something on Nat’s collarbone?”

Tony couldn’t say if she either understood or was just curious to see where it was going to end but he could bet it wasn’t the weirdest conversation she ever witnessed. Anyway, the woman let two fingers slipped under the fabric of the t-shirt she was wearing and dragged it back enough to expose her soulmate mark. 

“She has the tattoo of a spider,” He answered, and there was the tone of a question hidden somewhere in his words. “What does this mean, anyway?”

“I was wondering the same, doctor,” Nat herself said, but she wasn’t looking at the doctor. Her jade eyes were fixed on Stark. 

“While we were working on the Tesseract, he saw my tattoo,” Tony explained, his fingers brushing the Arc Reactor on his wrist. “And I saw his. But we are soulmates so it didn’t make sense. And then I thought that maybe also we were soulmates,” He indicated himself and Bruce. “So what you told me about the Hulk not smashing you when he could and saving me back in New York made me question. What if, maybe, we all are soulmates?”

“Well, apparently we are,” Nat said, smiling at Bruce. He nodded, and Tony could feel happiness through his left arm. He didn’t need to look to know it came from Natasha. He would start to feel Bruce’s feelings once he’d touched his mark but neither of them seemed to be so interested to do it. 

—

They were three lonely souls that found each other, Tony thought, he was seated on one of the couches in the theatre room, Nat’s head in his lap and Bruce’s chest used as a pillow.  
He wouldn’t ever dare to imagine he could be so tranquil in his entire life. He knew it wouldn’t last forever, and he knew that dating Nat meant to see her walking away for the next mission and he himself was torn between Iron Man and Stark Industries and Bruce would have left soon to go back in India, but for now, for now, he could just be there, just being, and knowing he wasn’t alone.

“How does it happen that the only time we are all together we are dozing on a sofa?” Nat asked, turning her jade eyes to look at Tony who was more on his way to sleep than everyone else. Bruce chuckled, his hand disappearing between Nat’s soft hair. “I mean, you are the one Tony Stark! Are you getting old?”

“You shouldn’t have said that, young lady!” He said, pushing her body up from his lap and assuming a more seated position. “We are watching a movie because it was Brucie’s turn to decide the entertainment for the night.” 

“That’s not true,” The other man answered. 

“And now you two are just teaming up against me,” Stark pouted, looking at his lovers. “I hate you, you know? I want to return you, both of you. You are absolutely mean, and you, you drop your nice guy mask, now! You’re not fooling anyone.” 

That brought everyone to start laughing, and Nat was back on his lap, legs spread and lips against Tony’s. And even if he missed the rapid movement that she made, he wasn’t going to complain. Especially when her lips left, his for Bruce’s while her hand cupped his groin, brushing the palm of it against his growing erection. 

He manoeuvred her so that Nat’s back was against the soft couch and a moment later felt Bruce’s weight shift at his back, one of the man’s strong arms around his waist, the other hand running to undoing Tony’s trousers. 

Again, Tony wasn’t going to complain about not watching any longer the movie. 

—

Tony was looking at his mark, trying to focus on the rage he could feel through the connection, but he couldn’t feel it. The last time he perceived Bruce was when he went on his solo mission on the QuinJet, after the entire Sokovia fiasco. 

He knew Nat was feeling the same. He looked her brushing her fingers against her tattoo, and Tony knew it was the way the woman had to try to ground herself, just like Tony’s was to hold her in his arms. 

She was back from DC four months before Bruce’s disappearing, and with SHIELD fallen, Tony knew they would have a lot more time to speak about everything. Not having Bruce there was painful. They belonged together, the three of them, they had spent three years together, and while Tony loved Nat with his entire self, Bruce not being there was a hole in his heart. Again, something he would have never imagined. 

“Tony,” Her voice was barely audible. For what Tony knew, the Compound was empty, so he didn’t see any reason to whisper. He let the wrench that he was using the fall against the workbench and drew his eyes on her. “Can I tell you something?” 

“Since when do you have to ask?” He answered, raising a brow. 

“Steve’s leaving, he asked me to get him something from his room and I found this,” Tony was starting to be worried, by his girlfriend’s words. She had never danced around so much about things, and now she was handing him a pen drive. “When SHIELD fell, he gave me an identical pen drive, so I thought he was weird he kept one for himself. There’s an only file on this. I didn’t know.”

“Fri,” Tony said, looking at Nat. “Can you please show me what Cap is hiding?”

He sounded surer that he was. The truth was that Tony wasn’t sure if he wanted to know what there was inside the pen drive. And when the video started to play, the only thing he could feel was pain, and angry, which numbed the comfort Nat was trying to send him, but not another feeling, something deeper that Tony couldn’t name. Though he didn’t feel it, not at that moment. And he couldn’t know that Bruce, on another planet, lost in space, could feel his own pain. 

The first thought that crossed his mind was to run up in the main room and punch the living shit out of Rogers who was leaving to find his killer pal, then he simply shook his head. Let the man find him, and then he would have faced both of them. 

“Thank you,” He said, in a soft whisper, hating how much his voice shook. 

He heard her heels against the concrete of his workshop and, a moment later, light touch was on his shoulder. All he could fell through their connection, now, was pure and raw love, something he didn’t feel since his mother was still alive - and no, he wasn’t going to think about Maria Stark right now. Her finger trailed up to brush the hair at the base of Tony’s neck and then she gently brought his head against her shoulder. 

“I’m here,” She whispered. “I’m not going anywhere, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” He said, closing his eyes and letting her hugging him. Nat’s scent was all around him, soft, delicate, and so much hers. “Not your fault.”

“Yeah,” He could say she was smiling, but Tony knew Nat wasn’t mocking him while she continued brushing her fingers against his scalp. Tony couldn’t help it any longer, and he tried to push back tears from spilling from his eyes, but the images of the Winter Soldier choking his mom were still too vivid in his mind. 

“Steve knew it,” He whispered. “Fury knew it. Maria Hills knows it, and they pretended it was fine. Fury gave me all the files he had on my father and forgot about the tape in which the fucking Winter Soldier, a man who was his friend, killed him?”

They stayed like that for almost two hours; they spoke about everything, Nat had Tony tell her everything he wanted to, she never pushed on him, she never asked him to open up more than he did. They were lonely souls, but, somehow, they mixed well, and maybe for the first time in almost fifty years, he was glad to have a soulmate. She was there, for him, she had seen him at his lowest and she was still there.  
Maybe because she was just as broken as he was, but she had always been better in hiding it. She was just more used to do it. 

“I should man up, now,” He said, after all the time they spent in the workshop. Tony knew Nat’s t-shirt was damp with his tears and his eyes were red, swollen and puffy, but he knew that the spy wouldn’t care. 

“You should have done that instead of building a suit of armour,” They both smiled and a moment later Nat’s arms were around Stark’s neck, dragging him closer in a kiss. “I love you, Tony. I’ll always be there for you.”

And only a part of Tony’s brain realized that it was the first time she said it. “I’m so grateful to have you and Bruce.”

Nat nodded. “I miss him too.” She said, and how she could understand things Tony never said was a mystery for the mechanic, but she did. 

—

They were jogging in Central Park, just the two of them for once. Tony dragged Natasha away from the mess that the Compound was with Steve checking on Bucky’s conditions every couple of hours and the usual general chaos that surrounded the Avengers. 

It was nice, just being with his girlfriend while he could totally hear Happy chasing for some paparazzi in the middle of the running paths all around the park. When he heard his bodyguard (seriously, he didn’t need one when his soulmates was an assassin, but still) saying Gary a wicked smile appeared on his lips and he slowed down a little bit. “We should invite him over, someday.”

Nat’s glance was questioning, but, again, it wasn’t like Stark was waiting for anything different. “Gary,” He answered, not smothering the edges of Natasha’s piercing stare. “Cool guy who helped me finding the Mandarin, but do not tell him he was actually of great help.”

“I thought his name was Harley,” She said, smiling a the billionaire who was clearly flustered by the small run. 

“Oh, not, he’s the kid. He helped me too, but he pretty much already knows that. Oh, I've got a better idea: let’s got to Tennessee with Gary, you’ll love them.”

“Ok, slow down shellhead. I’m not going anywhere with anyone before -” And a sparkling orange something opened just at her back, having Nat going immediately back to her Black Widow persona while the Widow Bite from her IronWidow suit started to take form around her left wrist. 

“I’m Doctor Stephen Strange,” The tall man inside the orange circle said. “And I need you to come with us.”

“Us?” Nat asked, looking at the thing while Tony’s ironic comment left his lips. He was still looking at the man when another figure walked through the circle, making clear it was a portal. And the person who joined them was someone both Tony and Natasha knew far too well. 

Bruce Banner was greeted in a thigh hug by the couple and that was enough for them to follow the men at the other side of the gateway. If Tony appreciated that Bruce was holding his hand while doing it, it wasn’t like someone had to know. 

—

When the alien spaceship landed in the middle of the Greenwich Village and the five of them ran outside the spooky house of horrors where they were speaking, the only thing Tony could think about was the bring a reluctant Hulk and Nat out of their way. That’s until one of the aliens took Strange and Peter popped out from nowhere. By that moment, the only thing he knew was that he had to be out of there, they all had to. And maybe rescuing the wizard with the magic stone in the process. 

“Nat,” He said, looking at the woman who was currently trying to distract the biggest of the aliens who decided to attack Tony. “Bring Peter out of here and contact the others!” 

She nodded, and, after having shot to the alien, she let Wong open a portal and send him somewhere as far as possible from New York. Tony nodded at the two of them and flew away, following the sorcerer toward the alien spaceship. That was the moment when she saw Peter following his mentor and rapidly turned the bracelets of her suit from Widow Bites to repulsors. She hated the idea of flying when Tony proposed that improvement of her equipment, but the genius, as always, was right and it was easier for her fighting when she could also fly. 

That, though, brought the alien who was carrying Strange on his merry way to death to start to attack her as well as Peter, making difficult for Natasha to reach the teen. And when a traffic light tried to kill her, she decided it was too much. Looking at the sky was enough to understand that Tony’s tactic of not following crazily the wizard was the better because the alien wasn’t focusing on him and when Peter shot a web to reach the flying thing, she aimed at that. Her move was enough a surprise for the other spider to lose his balance and curling up on himself, ready for the impact against the concrete. Nat caught him in the beat of an eye and once they both were sound and safe on the ground, the space ship, Strange and Tony were already gone. 

Bruce and Wong joined them a moment later, just to find face to face with an extremely angry Parker. “Mr Stark told me to protect the wizard!” The kid was yelling and the fact that not even Nat’s murderous glance could stop him said a lot about how he felt.

“And the last place where he wants you to be is on an alien spaceship,” She answered. She was used to bringing back to the reason the one Tony Stark, Peter could be as stubborn as his mentor was, but he still was mildly scared by the assassin. “Now, are you hurt?” 

Peter shook his head and Natasha nodded, before going back to look at Bruce and the remaining Sorcerer. “We need to call the others, they should be at the Compound.”

“I can portal you there,” Wong suggested. “I need to go back to the Sanctum, it can be left without protection, and with Stephen gone, it’ll be just me to watch over it.” 

Bruce nodded, and a moment later him, Natasha and Peter stepped through the shining orange portal that the librarian opened for them. Nat tried not to think about what just happened. It wasn’t just the fact that she himself wasn’t a fan of magic in the first place - Wanda was her friend, but it didn’t mean that she forgot about the memories she brought back in her mind or what Loki did to Clint back in 2010 - and while she understood those sorcerers, whatever they were, fought for their same aim, she always hated not knowing how things were going to evolve. 

“Hey, are you ok?” Bruce asked.

“Ask me when it’s not the end of the world, and I’ll answer you,” She said before Rhodey reached them surprised by the fact that Bruce was back and the three of them just walked into the room from nowhere. 

“Where’s Vision?” Banner asked, his eyes searching in the room as if he was waiting for the android to walk through the wall and appear in the middle of the room. Which was something that could happen, very likely, but it didn’t at that moment. Natasha couldn’t say if the anxiety and worrying that was running in her chest was hers, Bruce’s or Tony’s, or maybe all of them combined. Her fingers brushed the mark in a desperate search for strength. 

“He and Wanda went off the radar for a while,” Rhodey answered. “Guys, what’s wrong?” 

—

Tony looked at the beaten sorcerer that was catching back his breath from the almost free falling into space. And he totally couldn’t help but think that looking at the man in front of him was like looking at his own reflexion. 

He stood up and started to talk about how full of himself Tony was, and really, the only thing Stark wanted to do was reminding the man that he was the reason why he was still alive and not in the hands of some mysterious magic alien. 

And then he was face to face with him, they both were upset, scared, angry to each other even if the only person who had any reason to be was Tony. “If you want to go to Titan,” Strange said, after the more exhausting conversation he ever had. “You have to know that the Time Stone is my priority. I won’t put mine or your life before it, ever.”

And, at that, Tony brought himself to raise his eyes on the man’s, looking into multicoloured pools of pure sadness and determination. The problem was that Strange wasn’t Rogers. In all the years they worked together, the good Captain never gave him any other option. If he didn’t agree on Tony’s plan, he’d dismiss it without giving any explanation. That was frustrating.  
Strange, on the other hand, was listening to him and explaining him. He nodded. 

“Good,” He said, in a whisper. “Now help me before we crash and everything will be useless.”

Though, he found himself not being able to take off his eyes from Strange’s. There was something captivating, in those. Maybe it was a deep sadness, maybe the fact that he couldn’t make out their colour. Tony didn’t know, all he knew was that he was in open space, a place that he swore himself he would have never gone after New York. 

New York, again, wasn’t the right thing to think about at that moment. New York was the Chitauri army and was the people he left there, New York was Natasha, Peter, and now Bruce, who was finally back, New York was knowing he abandon them. The kid he was mentoring and consider as a son-figure and his soulmates. New York was joy and pain, but New York meant being with the people he learned to trust, space was huge, scary and the uncertainty about the wizard. He knew he couldn’t trust him. He didn’t know him well enough and Tony wasn’t someone to give his trust like that. 

But Strange was listening to him, Strange was letting him drive them, Strange was trying to understand his reasons. A shaking hand was on his shoulder a moment later and Tony realized he was still staring at the other man, he didn’t need to see his reflexion in those limpid eyes, though, to understand that his glance was empty, frightened. 

—

“Stop!” Strange’s voice reached Tony thought pain and the certainty that he was going to die on a dead planet at the border of the universe. He was fine with that. He could feel worrying and comfort stream through his left arm and could see, in front of him, Bruce’s eyes, that soft light in them. If Bruce’s memory was the one with whom he was going to leave the land of the livings, he was happy with that. He just wished he could have spent more time with the man. “Spare his life, and I’ll give you the Stone.”

 

Thanos stopped to poke into Tony’s chest with his own blade and turned to look at the Sorcerer. “No tricks?” He asked, and he looked almost surprised. Tony didn’t have time to ponder that expression on the Mad Titan’s face because, at that moment, three different things happened. 

Strange nodded, his shaking hand raised in front of his eyes; Thanos drew the blade out from Tony’s body, and, a moment later, a blue android appeared out of nowhere. Strange’s cape all but flew toward the Mad Titan and Tony could hear the soft sob escaping from his lips while the fabric wrapped itself around Thanos’s face long enough for the woman android to let each of the swords on the opposite sides of the Titan’s neck. 

Then everything was silent again. An unreal, oppressive silence. The android and Quill hugged while the other two aliens were looking at them, Mantis was trying to keep for herself tears that Tony wasn’t completely sure belonged to her while Drax was simply standing there, a looming and constant presence. He didn’t dare to say anything, looking at the collapsed Titan and an extremely unresponsive Cloak. He approached the relic the moment Strange did the same and the Sorcerer seemed on his good path to losing consciousness. 

“Hey, pal,” Stark said, pleading that the remaining bots were enough to fix his wound and the Cloak’s ones. He didn’t even know if he was speaking with Strange or his outwear, but the former seemed to nod. “A good job in having me killed in order to protect the Stone.” 

A shy and exhausted smile crept through Strange's chapped lips. “There was no other way.”

His hand ran on the Cloak which lifted a little bit its paw (could a cape have a paw?) to wrap around Stephen’s hand. A moment later, another piece of fabric was around Tony’s wrist and he couldn’t help but smile and pet it. 

“I like it,” Tony said, before deciding it was time for all of them to leave that forgotten planet. He couldn’t have the flying doughnut to take the sky again, but maybe they could ask for a ride to their weird new allies. He helped Strange up, and the two of them, with the Cloak in Stephen’s arms, reached the group of aliens which just saved the universe. 

—

They all were expecting something different. After they left New York because Nat suggested that T’Challa could help them with Vision, he couldn’t help thinking that what was going to come was the end. He had always hoped in the Avengers like everyone else, but he was a man of science and he knew that the numbers were against them. 

They wanted to send Peter back, but then the kid reminded them that Tony wanted him to be an Avenge, shortly after the sign of the Accords and so they just had to nod and agree in having the teen to tag along with them, before he decided to bring up the fact that Vision was even younger than he was, and practically powerless without the Stone. A rapid glance to Natasha had Banner thinking that the kid could easily take over the world, with examples such as his significant others. Apparently, he was going to be to boring parent in that.

They all were information in front of the barrier that protected Wakanda from the outside world. And then something started to fall from the sky. Bruce could physically feel the Hulk’s curiosity peak at the borders of his consciousness, though the other guy did nothing to make himself evident in front of everyone and Bruce was just too done with that.  
He tried to seat and to speak with him and hoped that meeting again with Tony and Nat could have helped his relationship with the Hulk, but it was a vain hope. He tensed, anyway, trying to understand how to fully control Tony’s Hulkbuster. Seriously, he still had no idea how his lover and Rhodey could use the suits and made it seems easy. 

Even Nat and Peter’s suits, despite being very similar to Tony’s, mixed titanium with fabric, making their movements more comfortable. The suit in which momentarily he, and always Stark and Rhodes whore were pure metal, destructive, but also easy to be trapped in. And well, that was the last thing Bruce wanted to think at that moment. 

They all were still looking at the incoming threat, at the other side of the barrier and the new thing that fell from the sky when with a flash of light, something broke into the secure dome of Wakanda. For a moment, nothing moved, and then T’Challa started to run toward the flash of light, immediately followed by Steve. 

Nat turned to look at Peter, and Bruce could clearly hear what she said: “If they get through our lines, you go up and protect Vision, get it, young man?”

It went unsaid that if they made through all the fighter that was on the field, Vision was as good as dead, another thing at which Bruce didn’t want to think, thank you so much, but at least she was trying to keep the kid away from the battle. Peter nodded, and that was enough for Banner to go back to look at the flash of light which looked way too familiar for the scientist. And the moment it dissipated, he understood why. 

Thor was standing in the middle of the battlefield, T’Challa and Steve immediately frozen on the spot, a racoon and a walking tree by the god’s side. Bruce couldn’t help but start to laugh like a maniac, the person standing in front of everyone else looked very much as the one who saved the people of Asgard from Ragnarok. If someone could defeat Thanos, that person was Thor. 

He could feel a timid relief streaming through his side, and he knew that came from Nat. The Black Widow was trying to keep back a smile while at Bruce’s backs, Peter was all jumpy about Thor being there to kick asses as if they weren’t going to fight for their lives and the ones of half of the universe. 

“Bring me Thanos!” He yelled the exact moment T’Challa gave the order to open the barrier to let the creatures inside. What followed was a mess of blood and screams, with Bruce trying to focus on how to make the Hulkbuster work all while trying to speak the Hulk into the transformation, just when he thought they were in a good relationship again!

He tried to focus on all the voices that streamed through the comms. Rhodey and Sam were trying to reduce the number of the incomings shooting at them, purple flashing from T’Challa’s suit and lightings from Thor filled his sight field with too many information and not for the first time, he tried to understand how could Tony being so multitasking. 

He decided to store it away for the next conversations, though, when the billionaire’s voice reached his ear. 

“Thanos is dead, you all lose,” He said, gaining a high-pitched “Mr Stark!” from Peter and a stream of questions from everyone else. “If you want to join him and rejoice, please, form an orderly queue and I’ll gladly help you.”

And then, Bruce rose his eyes to look just at the edge of the barrier and see Tony standing there, Strange and other three people he had never seen before at his side. Though, the most fascinating thing was that the group was facing two of the Children of Thanos or whatever. The moment the racoon saw them, jumped down from Bucky’s shoulder and let out a soft “Morons.”

—

“So, what happened on Titan?” They were at their usual post-end-of-the-world shawarma joint, all of them. Avengers, Guardians, Strange and Wong and even some of Thor’s people who the god managed to find in the space thanks to the help of the Peters. (actually, Quill just lent the Benatar to the god and Parker stuck around him for the entire day he had been in space.). Nat and Bruce pretty much kidnapped Tony and Strange, but the place was so crowded that anyone seemed to be willing to complain. 

“We were losing,” Tony said. “We went this close to take the gauntlet off from Thanos and then things went to shit like they always do, and we were losing.” No need to tell them that Quill lost his shit because the Mad Titan killed his girlfriend. Tony could totally understand him. 

“I already knew that,” Quill confessed to him, on their way back to Earth. “I felt when she died. Gamora was my soulmate. But knowing that it really happened -” 

Tony placed a hand on the half-god’s shoulder. “You don’t have to. It’s fine.”

“Then Stephen wanted to exchange the Time Stone for my life,” He continued, his eyes shifting on both his lovers. “And I don’t really know. Nebula appeared out of nowhere and Cloakie helped, of course,” He said before the relic decided to tell its own story. It was still beaten, and most of the times unresponsive, but Strange said it was going better and Tony was happy with that. “She killed him. He wasn’t expecting anything to happen, I guess. From him trying to bargain my life, to Cloakie blinding him. And most of everything, he wasn’t expecting for Nebula to show up, I guess.”

“The Gauntlet?” Bruce asked, and that was the time for Strange to answer. 

“I secured it and sent it back to the Sanctum. This morning I gave Thor the Space Stone. It belongs to Asgard,” He had been the one to come up with the idea of dividing the Stones again. “Vision and I will keep the Mind and the Time Stones, and I’m planning to give the Power Stone to the Guardians. They already handled it.”

“The Soul and the Reality ones?” Nat asked, and it was clear that she was vibrating with anxiety which Tony knew wasn’t solely hers. 

“The Reality Stone belonged to the king of the Moon, once,” Stephen said, and Tony couldn’t help a small smile to form on his lips. He had the same surprised expression when Stephen told him about BlackBolt and his family the first time, and when Quill totally confirmed his version of the things Tony decided he wanted to meet the man. “While for the Soul Stone, it’s a little bit more complicated.”

“The Soul Stone can’t be possessed,” Tony explained. He was sure they should speak about it to everyone else, but there was time for that, now he just wanted to spend time with the person he loved. “That’s why it required a sacrifice for Thanos to gain it. But a part of its power is in the bond between soulmates.”

“Do you mean that our bond is like a little Soul Stone?” Nat asked, looking at the Sorcerer. Tony couldn’t blame her, Stephen seemed to be the one who knew more about those, and he didn’t even know half of the stuff Wong did. Tony didn’t really want to think how much was still to discover. And they were sending the Stones on separate ways. He would have hated that, if Thanos’s voice wasn’t in his head, reminding him that he was cursed with knowledge too. 

“Our bond,” Tony explained, while his eyes darted on Stephen’s sleeve — yeah, there was the part where Strange saw that they were soulmates too, while trying to find a way to win against Thanos on Titan, but not need to tell them now — “Is the closest thing to the energy from the Soul Stone. Which means that, well, we are not sure, but Stephen thinks that if we keep it, well, people won’t ask where it is.”

Nat and Bruce nodded, maybe trying to make sense out of it, maybe simply because they didn’t know what to do in front of the words they just heard. In the beat of an eye, they were back speaking about dumb stuff of which Tony was grateful for. 

—

Tony didn’t really know how he could believe it was all a fairy tale, but he knew that he had been terribly stupid in not believing in soulmates. He closed his eyes, his head against Stephen’s chest, Nat half-curled on the other side of the Sorcerer and Bruce by Tony side. 

For once, in his entire life, Tony felt tranquil, protected, loved. Maybe it was because they defeated the looming threat that had been haunting his mind since New York, maybe it was because, in the end, all his life had been a run for something and now he could just enjoy the moment. Maybe it was because he had always missed something, in that life. And now he was complete. 

He knew the others were sleeping, and maybe that was why he did dare so much, but Tony opened back his eyes, looking at nowhere in particular, and whispered: “I love you, guys, I love you so much.”

“We love you too,” Stephen muttered, voice stained by sleep. “It’s fucking four in the morning, Tony.”

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are the air I breathe and the reason why I write, so make ur girl happy.
> 
> **wanna say 'hi'? do you have a prompt for me?** find me on [tumblr](https://ironstrange-is-the-endgame.tumblr.com/).  
> find my entire ironstrange bingo card on [dreamwidth](https://myrcellabaratheon.dreamwidth.org/3827.html) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/511160).  
> find my entire science bros bingo card on [dreamwidth](https://myrcellabaratheon.dreamwidth.org/6286.html) and [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/532721).


End file.
